Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Caraval

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Caraval by Stephanie Garber

10 reviews

mahra's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Welcome, welcome to Caraval! The grandest show on land or by sea. Inside you’ll experience more wonders than most people see in a lifetime. You can sip magic from a cup and buy dreams in a bottle. But before you fully enter into our world, you must remember it’s all a game.

I did not like this. The main issue that I have is that this book does not deliver on its promises.

Scarlett and Donatella (Tella) Dragna live with their abusive father, the Governor of the Isle of Trisda. As a child, Scarlett dreamt of participating in the game of Caraval led by a mysterious magical being called Master Legend, and winning the reward: a wish. She sent Legend many letters in the hope of receiving the very coveted tickets, but never received an answered. Years passed, and she gave up on her dream.
This year, however, she finally received a letter and three tickets: for her, Tella, and her fiancé. The Governor has arranged a marriage for Scarlett to a count that she's never met, but with whom she has exchanged letters. An engagement that she now sees as an exit route. Tella, however, wants to participate and win in Caraval in order to escape their father.
Against her will, Scarlett ends up having to participate in the game, and very quickly realizes that Tella was kidnapped by Master Legend and that she is at the center of the game. If she fails to find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, Tella will be gone forever...

There are good elements. The premise of the story is quite interesting (which is why I am so disappointed with the way it unfolds). I really enjoyed this dark carnival setting with some latine influences. I liked that the romance between the main character, Scarlett, and her love interest, Julian, was slowly built. It is believable.

However, I had many issues with the prose. I do not think that the author is a bad writer. I have read a lot worse, but the prose in this one feels overly colorful (*wink*). The superfluous descriptions started to interfere with the pacing. The author also uses color adjectives to describe smells, tastes, and emotions and ends up creating sentences that do not make any sense.

Spoiler

(I know it is because of Scarlett’s ability to see emotions as colors, but it was very distracting)

For example: "Shades of the rich ruby love she'd felt during the game mixed with hues of deep-indigo hurt" or "Something about him made her feel perilous shades of silky black". And since she described Scarlett’s emotions that way, it made it difficult to understand and connect with her. I really did not learn much about her outside of what was written verbatim, so I did not have any reason to care about her. She is also quite unlikable because of how foolish she is. I understand that this is supposed to be a story about much she learns during the game, but she very annoying at times.

I did not find any of the characters likeable or enjoyable. Even, Legend, as a villain felt… strangely boring (?). I also found them quite stereotypical and "one note" (opposite sisters, cold and cunning love interest

Spoiler

who is a double agent

, mysterious villain who is manipulating everyone…), which is not always an issue, but in this case it did not help. The father felt like a moustache-twirling villain, and I find those very difficult to do well… The author also used a trope that I hate:

Spoiler

the very old man who does not age (Julian) who ends up with the very young and naive main character and manipulates her before he falls in love with her.

The story was also somewhat predictable. I consume a lot of fantasy, so it is quite difficult to surprise me. It does not always bother me, but in this case, I guessed most of it pretty quickly (and what I did not guess was not well introduced to the story, it came out of nowhere).

I was expecting a harrowing story full of twists,

Spoiler

but ultimately they are all rendered pointless by that final twist. Donatella, the sister, was behind all of it. Everything was a lie. It is comparable to an "it was all a dream" ending, in my opinion. What was the point of all of this? Escaping their father and Scarlett’s fiancé? Was all of this necessary to achieve that? None of it makes sense. The other books may answer that question, but if that is the case, this one does not lead me to believe that. Scarlett simply accepts everything, and very easily forgives her sister. Which brings me to my next point: the book does not accurately describe how horrible of a sister she truly is. She put Scarlet through all of this — unnecessarily in my opinion — and she was completely unapologetic about it. Again. Why?

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kimib79's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I wanted and expected to love this, but I didn't. I adore this author's Once Upon a Broken Heart series, but this one just isn't for me. I wasn't in love with the characters, especially Tella, and the atmosphere of the story is not my cup of tea; Probably because I hate circus/carnival atmosphere and that is what this is. If you like carnival or circuses, this book is for you.

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laurel_f_945's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It may have been how fast I read it, but the book as a whole was a bit confusing, with plot twist after plot twist, and an incredible amount of questions that seemed to go unintentionally unanswered. The prose was beautiful and really drew me in, but the plot seemed simultaneously overcrowded and a little empty. Overall, a pretty enjoyable read, though there were definitely some areas that could use improvement.

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thecatconstellation's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Overall, I enjoyed this, but at times I felt like one too many things was happening and some of the information towards the end felt very rushed, especially compared to the pacing of the rest of the book.

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mayas's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It's been a day since I finished this book. And as the hours have passed, I've felt more grateful that I read it. I was able to see parts of myself in this story, and I've also learnt more about me.

I experienced so much joy and excitement reading this. The kind of ADHD joy/excitement that dances through your whole body and feels euphoric. The kind that makes you scream and cackle because the tension is just right, the twists are endless, and you just figured out that clue right before it was revealed.

I love the concept of this book. I love the setting. The characters. The descriptions. I have synesthesia, and so it was a DELIGHT to read the senses blend so many times. One of my favourite synesthesia-like moments in this book was the comparisonred velvet red curtains to chocolate cake
soaked in wine. I've never tasted that, or thought about this, but I SO understand this comparison!!! So much. Heheh

I was a little disappointed with the ending at first, and sort of still might be? But I also find it SO COOL. What Stephanie Garber did and how she did it was very clever and I love it. I really love it.

Thank you, Stephanie, for this story.

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ssc1109's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book was such a roller coaster. I never knew how much I wanted a mystery/fantasy/thriller/dark emotional book until now. I was constantly guessing at what was going on and what the clues meant. This book had me hooked.

Fantastic world building and love that the ending made me shake with fear and excitement at the same time.

Audio book was a fantastic performance, even at 1.35x speed.

No spice but suggestions are made. 🌶/5

Suggestive SA trigger warning.
Abusive parent trigger warning.

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alee02's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

This was a fast and fun read but it’s not the strongest writing (the similes are a little out of control, i.e. a kiss “tasted like wind”). The magic of the world is very compelling and because of the narrator’s perspective bounds to that magic we’re difficult to establish, but this sometimes cheapened the stakes of the game. When I got to the end, I felt the very underwhelmed.

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sophieefaithh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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emnem's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Absolutely loved this book. It was a magical mind trip. Very dark themes but the end was amazing.

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kerrygibbons's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Beyond the fact that I don’t particularly like mysteries, I found this overall to be a surprisingly mediocre book. The action is jumped into almost alarmingly quickly and somehow it didn’t feel like the characters (or the reader) were ready for it. Just when I would get into one part of the story, it would change dramatically. The epilogue was enough to make me nearly give it 2 stars, but that’s VERY difficult to earn from me.

CW: suicide

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